Destiny Finds a Way
by writing-is-thinking-on-paper
Summary: We've been told that no matter how many obstacles block our path, destiny will always find a way to sneak around it, to set us back on the right course. At least that's what we're supposed to believe, that everything happens for a reason. But the funny thing about life is that it never works out just the way we want it to. Something always comes along and messes it all up.


**A/N: So I still haven't updated One Day but I will at some point. I haven't written anything in a while so I decided to change it up this time. This fic is on the serious side which is a little different for me. Nevertheless, I still hope you want to read it :) **

We've been told that no matter how many obstacles block our path, destiny will always find a way to sneak around it, to set us back on the right course. At least that's what we're supposed to believe, that everything happens for a reason. But the funny thing about life is that it never works out just the way we want it to. Something always comes along and messes it all up. Or in some cases, it's someone rather than something.

Eddie was five years old when his Dad left. It wasn't abrupt, like most people though it was. He didn't act without thinking. He didn't lose it, packing up his bags in a fuss before marching out the door. Eric had put plently of thinking into it. He thought maybe if they talked about his decision long enough, it would show that he cared, that it wasn't an easy choice for him. But to a kid as young as five, that's what made it hurt even more. It wasn't a short stab of pain, when suddenly it could all be over in a flash. It was the exact opposite, actually. It was long and drawn out, like laying on the ground as the life slowly drained from you. Each day seemed to last an eternity. It took months. Months of arguing, and negotiating, paperwork and lawyers. As each day passed he could see the youth drain from his mother's face. The dark circles that framed her eyes, the collection of bottles that scattered across the kitchen counter tops. To this day he can still smell the hint of alcohol that lingered on her breath as she bent to kiss him goodnight when she tucked him into bed.

As T.S. Eliot once said, not with a bang but a whimper.

That was how the world would end.

And that was how Eddie's world seemed to be falling apart.

They moved from place to place as his mom desperately searched for jobs. They needed all the money they could get. It was a burden taken off their shoulders when they heard that Eric had got a teaching position over in the U.K., things slowly started to get better. They started to get normal, if you could even call it that. With money now steadily coming in through child support, life got easier. Eddie should have been happy that both parents were making an effort to put their lives back together, but he couldn't help but feel angry at his father. Not just for leaving them, but for how he seemed so unaffected by it all. His job wasn't as an accountant, or a lawyer, but a teacher. He spent his whole day working with kids. His job was to watch over them, to make sure they were safe. He could tell you something unique about each and every one of his students, but he couldn't even do that with his own son. That was something Eddie was very well aware of.

So when he got the letter that he had been accepted into his father's boarding school, how was he supposed to feel?

Angry?

Excited?

Nervous?

His mother, on the other hand, was ecstatic.

_"Everything happened for a reason, Eddie." _She would say, _"And now things are finally falling into place."_

The first week was awful. Everyone hated him, and he was pretty sure most of his teachers did too. He'd give it another week before he was sent away to another boarding school, or back home to his mom.

But just like when he was younger, things started to get better again. And this time destiny would throw in a rather attractive red-head to stir things up.

He would always remember his first run-in with Patricia Williamson. It had been complicated, to say the least. He remembers being shaken out of sleep to be met with the icy stare of her piercing green eyes. Looking her up and down, she wasn't half bad. But that was before she opened her mouth, and proceeded to yell at him in her whiny British yack. This banter had gone on for weeks, and soon Eddie was the pathetic guy chasing around a girl who was seemingly uninterested. But that was the catch, she wasn't uninterested. Just the opposite, actually. And if he just had a little more time he knew she would crack.

Just as he expected, though, his father wanted him to go home after a few short weeks.

He had argued that _"He finally got what he wanted."_

But that wasn't true, Eddie didn't want to go home. He wasn't going to be like his father. He couldn't walk out on them.

There was stuff to stay for.

There were people to stay for.

He couldn't help but wonder if that's why his father left, because there _wasn't _anything worth it. But wasn't his family enough? Wasn't he, his only son, enough to keep him from going away?

Obviously, it wasn't.

Yet here he was now, face to face with the man who had walked out on him.

That had to be destiny, right?

And in this very moment in time, Eddie was almost considering forgiving him for all he had done_. _

Everything that's happened over the last month would have seemed impossible not so long ago. The idea of spending time with his father was something he would have found disgusting. Now, he was scheduled to have dinner with him sometime next week. And who would be joining him? His girlfriend, Patricia. That was something he'd never get tired of saying. He couldn't have imagined that one girl could have changed his entire outlook on this once dreadful place. Much less that a certain red-head could make him fall for her in a matter of weeks. But all that had happened over the course of a month, and the school year was just beginning.

What else it had in store, there was no way to tell.

But destiny would find a way through it.

That was a guarantee.

**A/N: This actually started out as a Peddie fic but then it grew into this... I'm not even sure what this is :/ I know it's a little different than other things I've written but I still hoped you enjoyed it. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. Please leave a review! They really do make my day :)**


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